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![handle is hein.amindian/throita0001 and id is 1 raw text is: No. zoS-Second Series-35oo]
INDIAN RIGHTS AssoCIATION,
995 DREXEL BUILDING,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
April 20, 1916.
THREATENED EXPLOITATION OF
INDIANS
On behalf of the Indian Rights Association, which for a
period of +hirty-three years bas sought to defend the Indian
race against plunderers of various kinds, I ask our friends
and all workers for good government to aid us in the defeat
of the Hastings Bill, and other measures noted below.
These are now before the Congress of the United States.
We regard the Hastings Bill (H. R. 1o8), fair and plaus-
ible as it may seem on the surface, as one of the most subtly
dangerous which a powerful lobby has ever sought to enact
into a Federal statute. If it shall become a law its effect will
be to remove the management of Indian affairs, so far as
the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma are concerned, from
the Indian Bureau,-where they have always been and
should for the present continue to be,-to the hands of a
political appointee who would be subjected to the importun-
ities of irresponsible, selfish and designing men. Three
years ago the interests of a certain class of Indians, from
whose property restrictions were removed, suffered greatly
thereby. Scandals that aroused strong public indignation
resulted; but still greater evils would flow from the passage
of the Hastings bill. The estimated assets of the restricted
members of the Five Civilized Tribes are at least SIXTY-
SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS. These contain vast amounts of
oil, coal, asphalt, etc. This great prize is, in our judgment,
the impelling force for the enactment of this measure.
The Johnson Bill (Senate 3904) and the Lane Bill (Sen-
ate 4452), extending to Indians the right to nominate super-
intendents and employes on reservations, ostensibly aim to
promote self government among the Indians, which is
certainly a good thing and therefore it is likely to captivate
Reproduction by Permission of Buffalo & Erie County Public Library Buffalo, NY](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.amindian/throita0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)